set top box

If you thought Facebook already has enough presence on the screens of your various devices, get ready for one more: the TV. The social network behemoth is gearing up to expand its ever-growing advertising network with a test that will run video ads within certain apps on the Apple TV and Roku set-top boxes. The tests could start as early as next week, but there's no word yet on a pre-determined video length.

In case you'd forgotten, Xfinity and Netflix are teaming up to bring the streaming service to Comcast's X1 set-top box. The partnership was announced way back in July, and at the time, neither company said when Netflix would be available on the X1. Today, Comcast announced that the nationwide roll out will begin next week.

Jide has made a name for itself for pushing Android to the desktop, in places and ways that Google may not necessarily approve of. Although it is hardly the only one to do so, no other startup or project can boast of the hardware, software, and business that Jide enjoys. Spurred by that success, it is taking yet another stab at the Android PC market, but this time with a slightly different bent. One that bundles PC, TV, and console in one small package: the Remix IO, or Remix In One.

At the start of the year, the FCC announced plans to overhaul the set-top-box market, putting cable providers on guard and earning praise from many consumers. Summer has passed, though, and winter is right on the horizon, with it coming the start of a new year, a new presidential administration, and a quickly dwindling timeframe to get several regulations pushed through. In light of all that, it’s no big surprise that the FCC has delayed its set-top-box vote.

Roku has opened the floodgates today, announcing a total of five new streaming players at a variety of price points. These new Roku streamers range from the fairly basic to feature-packed, and aim to satisfy everyone regardless of if they're using a composite A/V cable set up or a 4K HDTV. This announcement follows a number of leaks, with the latest happening just a few days back.

In case you’ve forgotten, Xiaomi has a sleek looking Android TV device in the pipeline called the Mi Box. This set-top-box will compete with the likes of Roku and Amazon as a consumer video streaming device, one that brings fairly high level specs compared to similar products. We’ve got a bunch of pictures and all the details in our hands-on from May, and now we may have a price: $69, at least per someone who spotted the Xiaomi Mi Box in a Walmart.

The living room entertainment market is getting a bit more crowded, with an increasing number of players in the smart TV, set-top box, and streaming markets. In order to maintain its prominence as the set-top box brand, Roku is expected to do a refresh of its entire line, from top to bottom. Instead of the numbered models from 1 to 4, this latest leak shows five, yes five, models to take their place. With features that sometimes bleed into each other, the Roku Express, Express Plus, Premiere, Premiere+, and Ultra could give consumers more options, or confuse the hell out of them.

Xiaomi fans in the US might continue to be disappointed at the company’s slow US march, but next month it might get a step closer. According to sources, Xiaomi’s teased October reveal will feature an Android product, but it’s not the smartphone you are looking for. Instead, it will be all about the Mi Box Android TV set-top box that will allow Xiaomi to compete in the US in a market that’s relatively young and relatively unconquered, ensuring it can leave a stronger mark on consumer’s minds before it takes on the smartphone giants.

Streaming set-top box maker Roku is expected to release an updated lineup of devices this fall, and according to new information, the company will finally move away from including numbers in their naming scheme (i.e. Roku 1, Roku 2, Roku 3). Zatz Not Funny, a frequently reliable source when it comes to leaks, says that instead of seeing a Roku 5, there will be unique names for each model, including the "Roku Express" and "Roku Premiere."

Apple is working on fleshing out its universal search capability and has announced that search now covers content from three new networks. Users of the fourth generation Apple TV can now search for shows from Comedy Central, MTV, and VH1 that is hosted on their apps. Apple says that the new capability is immediately available for all fourth generation Apple TV owners in the US.

The NVIDIA SHIELD is a nifty Android device that is quite perfect for developing graphics intensive apps, like games, thanks to its NVIDIA Tegra X1 chip and the shiny new Vulkan API.But at its heart, it is an entertainment device with a disposition for high quality, high resolution video. That nature is all the more emphasized in the latest firmware 3.2 update that brings, among other things, Plex server, support for 4K videos on VUDU and YouTube, and Netlix in HDR mode.

Having a set-top box that isn't tied to a specific service or network has many advantages but at least one big disadvantage: sorting through the myriad of sources to get to the content you want, at the price you like. Roku created its Search software to address that need, offering "unbiased" results with their equivalent prices, if applicable. Now Roku is adding more sources to harvest videos from, about more than 50 channels. Those include, for the first time, news channels so that you can also keep updated not just on fictional events but real-world ones as well.